Note-sheet



R. REYNOLDS.

NOTE SHEET. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 8. 1920.

1,364,645. Patented Jan. 4,1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l- Con 94D.

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INVENTUR lfiReyzz/o his R. REYNOLDS. N IE SHEET APPLICATION men SEPT. 8, i920.

Patented Jan, 4, 1921.

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. A5 riffin /7 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

REGINALD REYNOLDS, OF LONEKJN, ENGLAND.

NOTE-SHEET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 4, 1921.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, REGINALD BnYNoLDs, A. G. S. M., a subject of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, and residing at 3a The Crescent, Barnes, London, S. England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Note-Sheets, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improved note sheets for use in piano players and the like. In all note sheets as at present manufactured, the notes consist of a series of perforations varying in length and in their position upon the note sheet, while certain markings are employed upon the roll to indicate the variations of tempo and force respectively, but no adequate assistance is given to determine the pitch or the rhythm of such perforated notes. It is therefore impossible for anyone, however skilled, to read this music in such a way as would be necessary if he were to be able to play the music himself by hand.

The main object of this invention is to render the note sheet directly readable in the above sense, and thus enable a more intelligent performance to be given upon the piano player.

It has been proposed to provide note sheets with representations of the notes on a piano or the like with cross rulings indi cating bars.

This certainly assists in the interpretation or understanding of the music but it does not go far enough for practical success. It is essential that the beats should be indicated as well as the bars.

The reason I say that it is essential that beats should be shown as well as bars is that first the length of measures as determined on the sheet by the arranger is not necessarily uniform and unless beats be shown one is unable to tell whether the measure is simply spaced out or whether the time of the piece is changed. therefore unable to say how the notes in the measures should be accented.

Further, it is not common in practice to indicate on a note sheet the time signature of the music and unless beats be shown one cannot even tell how accenting should be effected at least until some measures have been played, in which case one may be able to ascertain the rhythm of the piece. In some instances the name of the piece indicates the number of beats in a measure, such One isas for example, in a waltz or in a march, but the rhythm of all works cannot be ascertained in this way.

That this question of heat indication is of cons1 ilerable importance may be appreciated from the accompanying drawin s. in which I i a lllggure 1 represents in old notation a few or the opening measiu'es of a modern work 111 amore or less popular or simple style.

mg. shows how it is actually arranged on a note sheet for use with a pianola.

Fig. 3 shows bar markings applied to the arran ement, and

Fig illustrates beat markings in combination with bar markings and representations of the notes applied according to my invention, it being understood that the longitudinal representations of the notes and the bars have been proposed before as explained above.

This piece was. selected at random and the bars ruled on the sheet from which it became apparent that the arranger had extended very considerably the first measure as shown by the lowest measure in Fig. An operator playing this piece from asheet as shown in Fig. 2 will have had no indication of this. From a sheet as shown in Fig. with the bars illustrated, he would not have been able to say whether the measure had only been extended for the purpose of obtaining a forced rallentando or whether the rhythm were different from the measures which he could see were to follow. Therefore he would not know whether to accent each note (for each note being formed with a slot he would know that each was part of the melody as this is a common way of indicating the melody), nor could he tell whether he should divide the six notes shown into two groups of three or into three groups of two. (in inspection, he would probably decide to oivide them into two groups of threewhich would be incorrect.

Now comparing the representation this measure in Fig. 3 with that in Fig. 4 where the beats are indicated by short lines c on the black notes, the operator could see once where the accents should be made.

Again, the importance of this marking of the beats can be ascertained with reference to ordinary works as played at the present day, both modern and older works.

From these works many examples can be found in which it cannot be inferred from the music, as it would commonly be reproduced on a note sheet, whether the accenttime. Again, with music written in a bar. Similarly with time this may 2 two groups corresponding to Z l or two groups corresponding to 1 iollowed 2 by A? Further in some cases the measures are i'ollo wed by so long that it is impracticable without beat indication to ascertain how the music should be played because both ends of the measures may not be in sight at the same time.

In one case, for example, a work written 11 in 12 terposed measures in g time has measures time which incidentally contains in in which the number of notes as 47.

Many other examples should be given of cases where it is essential to a proper understanding or accenting of the work that beats should be indicated.

According to my invention all the notes of the instrument are represented by longitudinal spaces between certain division lines, the black notes being difi'erentiated by shading, coloring or marking the corresponding spaces, and the bars and beats are indicated by transverse lines. The notes are indicated by perforations of lengths proportioned to their time values; while in the case of accompaniments, the notes of the vocal, or instrumental parts may be indicated by longitudinal markings within the respective divisions upon the note sheet corresponding to the pitch and rhythmical value of the notes it is desired to indicate.

The invention consists in a note sheet. or roll for mechanical musical instruments having produced on its face longitudinal markings to indicate the separate keys of the piano or the like, transverse markings dividing the sheet into sections corresponding to the measures of the music and other transverse markings subdividing the measures into beats and perforations in said sheet on the representations of the separate keys,

is as high the perforations and the markings being correlated or registered with respect to one another in accordance with the work it is desired to reproduce.

In carrying the invention into effect in one form as illustrated in Fig. t applied to the production of piano player music, I take a sheet or sheets a of roll music upon which the longitudinal markings have been made, (in other words, the roll is provided with divisions or spaces throughout its length and is in that way a representzv tion of the entire keyboard ot' the piano) and so arrange the cutting machine that the perforations 0 shall occur within their respective positions in relation to their pitch, that is the cutting will take place on the representation of the note to be played. I then provide transverse markings (3 across the whole sheet to represent the bar divisions and transverse rulings 0 corresponding to the beats occurring in the composition across those spaces only which correspond to the black notes of the piano, as I lind in this way the sheet as a whole is clearer than it the beat markings extend right across, these marking being repeated in each measure oi the music.

It will be seen that thus the whole of the musical information is conveyed at a glance in direct terms of the pianoitorte notes as re gards pitch, and in direct measurement as regards time.

In manufacturing sheets according to the present invention in order to insure that the bars and cross lines are in correct relationship to the perforations I prefer to employ the means described in my British Letters Patent No. 134,324.

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A note sheet for mechanical musical instruments having on its face longitudinal markings to indicate the separate keys of the piano or the like, transverse markings dividing the sheet into sections correspond ing to the measures of the music and other transverse markings subdividing the bars into beats; note perforations in said sheet on the indications of the separate keys, the perforations and the markings being correlated or registered with respect to one another in accordance with the work it is de sired to reproduce, the beat markings being placed only on those spaces which correspond to the black keys of the musical instrument.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

REGINALD REYNOLDS. 

